Two Wegmans Executives to Retire at Year-End

Wegmans announced this week that two longtime executive team members will hang up their hats at the end of the calendar year. 

Jack DePeters, senior VP of store operations, and Jo Natale, Wegmans' VP of media relations, will retire at the end of 2019. Both associates are known for their efforts to make Rochester, N.Y.-based Wegmans a better company and one of the top grocers in the U.S., given its consistent high marks with customers.

DePeters began his Wegmans career in 1967 as a customer service associate while still in school. He continued to work for the company during college and then after graduation on a full-time basis. DePeters held a variety of jobs with Wegmans, spanning operations and merchandising, and was a store manager, head grocery buyer and director of dairy and frozen grocery products. He was promoted to his current position 20 years ago. 

Natale joined Wegmans after working in the insurance business and later becoming a stay-at-home mom before she took up a part-time job in 1983 as a pharmacy tech at a new store in Rochester. Natale joined the company as a full-time employee in 1987; by 1992, she was promoted to manager of media & consumer relations, then became the department's vice president in 2016.

Wegmans veteran Bob Farr will succeed DePeters and Natale will be replaced in her position by newcomer Deana Percassi.

This year, Wegmans opened its 100th store, in Raleigh, N.C., and the company has been awarded many times in the past three years as both a top employer and one of Fortune magazine's best places to work for women.